Janashakthi Group Chairman Chandana de Silva and Managing Director/ Group CEO Ramesh Schaffter discuss the company’s humble origins and transformation into a leading diversified conglomerate in the country. They also share insights on how different businesses and people across the group are aligned to a single vision to embark on the transformational journey envisioned for the group and explore new avenues of growth.

Tell us about Janashakthi Group’s founding and milestones along the way that shaped the Group to what it is today?

De Silva: In 2018, we marked the biggest sale in the Insurance industry and one of the biggest corporate deals with the divestment of the General Insurance business, focusing exclusively on Life Insurance, the very business the brand first ventured into two decades ago.

Since our modest beginnings as a small life Insurance company in the early 1990s, the “Janashakthi” brand has progressed to become a diverse conglomerate operating in the Insurance, Finance, Investment and Real estate sectors. The Janashakthi Group comprises of First Capital (a financial services company dealing in government securities, asset management, structuring and placement of debt instruments for clients, managing unit trusts and stockbroking), Janashakthi Life, Orient Finance (a finance and leasing company) and Kelsey Homes (a property developer specializing in building gated communities).

The family that founded this group is the Schaffter family and towards the end of 2018, two branches of the family amalgamated to form the group we have today. Our journey has grown from humble local roots, guided by a strong set of values and fuelled by bold ambition.

In 2020, we rolled out initiatives to leverage synergies across the two groups, to accelerate the transformational journey envisioned for the group.

Tell us how Janashakthi Group is creating synergies between its different business units for growth?

Schaffter: Our group’s businesses are leaders in their respective industries, and we have now aligned ourselves to further strengthen our business operations. This business model allows the group companies to share services and leverage synergies and access expertise across a range of functions. Our strength has been our leadership, both at management and board level, who bring a variety of skills and experience from diverse backgrounds. We believe operational excellence and customer service are essential requirements for growth and for staying ahead of the competition.

How do you align people from across the Group to a single shared vision?

Schaffter: The word Janashakthi literally means ‘the strength of the people’ and it began with a family, over two decades ago. That sense of family, belonging and togetherness still runs deep in our DNA and as the organisation evolves, we will continue to focus on the strength of our people across the Group.

Initiated in 2020, a key driver to achieve this will be our shared value proposition for Janashakthi Group which will be fully implemented in 2021.

We are also actively working on unifying the culture across the group recognizing that the group is an amalgamation of two groups. The group’s five core values are to be ethical and honest, transparent, performance-driven, respectful and collaborative. Embedded in ‘performance driven’ is a meritocracy. We embrace diversity and the combination of this and merit-based decisions will enable our people to grow and be the best they can be.

We believe that shared values are at the heart of every successful organization and our task is to embody these values in every aspect of our work life.

Our priorities include organisational development, fair process, customer centricity and investing in the competencies needed to be agile, speedy and resilient.

What is the Group’s business strategy and what are your plans for the future?

De Silva: Acquisitions have been a part of our DNA and are the driving force behind the Janashakthi brand’s growth over the decades. We will continue to invest in our group’s capabilities while broadening our relationships and exploring the possibilities of listing the group entity on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Our collective strengths; the combination of the founding family’s entrepreneurial spirit and acumen together with the business building capabilities of management and board members, positions us well to seize opportunities to deliver value to our stakeholders. We will continue to focus on delivering superior returns to our shareholders, by harnessing the strengths we have within the group to enhance business performance.